Spirits of the Past
by Arrowfoot the Dragon
Summary: Jenna, the one who stopped Cyrus and saved the world from destruction, has never really bothered herself with the mansion known as the Old Chateau. Now she, Cynthia, and Gardenia will have to brave its mysteries and save the souls within - or die trying.
1. The Legend

DISCLAIMER: I don't own pokemon... which stinks, but it's the truth. If anyone would like to buy the pokemon company for me, that would be great, but until then, I have to put up this stupid disclaimer.

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**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 1: The Legend_

"And so, with that final blow, Jenna calmed the legendary pokemon Palkia, and the crisis that would have destroyed our world was put to a halt. Cyrus fled, never to be seen again, and the world once more settled into its regular way of life.

"And that is the story I came here to tell. Did you guys like it?"

"Yeah!" The group of children shouted. The narrator of the story had been none other than the Champion Cynthia herself, expert on legends and legendary pokemon. She was currently on tour with the now-famous Jenna, trying to get word out about what had happened so recently in the Sinnoh region. She hoped that, by teaching about it, something like it would never happen again. And with both Cynthia _and_ Jenna there, they were able to draw quite large crowds to listen to the tale.

Almost all of the children of Eterna City were there, as well as many of the adults. They had all gathered around the statue of Palkia, where Cynthia and Jenna had decided to tell the story. Now that the story was done, the enthusiastic children called out their request in strident voices.

"Can I have your autograph, Miss Cynthia?"

"I wanna see your awesome pokemon! What kind of pokemon do you have, Jenna?"

"Do you know any other stories, Miss Cynthia?"

Both Jenna and Cynthia ended up giving out numerous autographs, and both had to show off at least one pokemon. Cynthia sent out her Garchomp, while Jenna sent out her first pokemon: Sandy the Sandlash. Once all the children had been amazed to their heart's content, they ended up getting bored, with many wanting to go home. They had been listening to Cynthia and Jenna talk since lunchtime, and the sun was starting to near the horizon. Most of the kids, and a lot of the adults, were starting to get tired after the long day.

Eventually, Cynthia dispersed everyone. "Okay, let's all head home now. I'm sure we're all tired from sitting under the heat all day. Thanks for coming, everyone!" With this, everyone took the hint and began dispersing. Jenna and Cynthia stayed near the statue until it seemed everyone had gone. It was now dusk, and they were about to leave when Jenna noticed that one more person was standing a little ways away.

"Who's there?" She asked, causing Cynthia to turn and notice the straggler. The person stepped forward, and turned out to be someone that both Jenna and Cynthia knew: Gardenia, the gym leader of Eterna City.

As she stepped up, she said, "Gosh, did you really do all that stuff, Jenna? No wonder I couldn't beat you! I'd heard rumors about what had happened that day, but the truth was way wilder than the fiction. I'd heard that a girl had done it, but I would have never guessed it was the pipsqueak who beat me with only a Sandslash!" Despite her joking words, she acted nervous. She was fiddling with her hands as she talked, and she seemed to avoid making proper eye contact with either Jenna or Cynthia.

"Did you need something, Gardenia?" Cynthia asked, concernedly. She could tell that the gym leader was upset about something.

"Who said I needed anything?" Cynthia gave her a mock glare, meaning something along the lines of 'of course you need something.' Gardenia laughed in a nervous way, then said, "Okay, okay! I do need something. Cynthia, I was just wondering… do you know anything about the Old Chateau?"

"You mean that creepy building just west of here?" Jenna asked. "That place always gives me the creeps when I pass by. Is it haunted?"

Cynthia shrugged. "I'm not sure if it's haunted or not. But I do know the myth surrounding it. But it's getting dark here. Let's go back to our room at the pokemon center, and I'll tell you there.

Once they arrived back in the room, Gardenia and Jenna sat on the bed at one side of the room, facing Cynthia on the bed at the other side of the room.

"The tale of the Old Chateau is a sad one. A tale of murder, betrayal, greed, and perhaps a bit of insanity – not a tale for a stormy night, I assure you. Are you sure you're ready?" Whether or not they were ready, Cynthia was already in her element – myths and legends were her specialty, and no one was better at retelling them. Jenna nodded, excited at the prospect of a ghost story. Gardenia already looked frightened, but she did not protest.

"Very well. The story starts long ago – no one knows exactly how long. A small family of three lived in the mansion now known as the Old Chateau. They lived out in the forest, so that they could be undisturbed by the trivialities of regular society. The man of the house was a successful scientist, who made leaps and bounds in the fields of Pokemon biology and physiology. His wife and daughter lived in the house with him, as well as their butler.

"Everyone was happy – it was nearly a perfect life. But of course, all good things must come to an end. The mother died from an unknown cause, and the scientist went into a state of shock. They say he went crazy with his studies, being seen only at meals. Many speculate that he was trying to unlock the secrets of life – so that he could one day revive his dead wife, whom he could not live without. The girl felt neglected, but she still loved her father. The butler, however, felt that the family fortune was being put to waste with these ridiculous studies. He knew that he was second in line for the fortune, with only the daughter before him. He decided to kill them both.

"Since he cooked all their meals, he decided to poison them. Of course, since he ate with them at dinner, he would have to ingest the poison as well. That's why he bought an antidote to cure himself afterwards. But the little girl was no idiot. She saw the antidote and realized what the butler was doing. She tried to warn her father, but he and the butler had always been good friends rather than master and servant. He would not believe her. She hid the antidote in the trash can, intending to use it to cure her father. The butler served a special dessert that night – a poisoned gateau. When they ate dinner that night, the girl left on excuse that she had to go to the bathroom. She snuck into the kitchen and hid the antidote in the trash, then used substitute to send a replica of herself back to eat."

"Wait a minute, only pokemon can learn substitute, can't they?" Jenna asked incredulously. She looked over and saw that Gardenia was literally shivering, scared out of her wits by the story so far.

"Who knows?" Cynthia replied. "Some say this girl had amazing psychic powers, developed from her long hours of loneliness. And she used these powers to actually learn substitute by somehow using a TM. Either way, the substitute was the one that got poisoned. The scientist went back to his lab, taking the food with him. He was nearing a breakthrough, and never finished the dessert he had taken with him. It was left to sit on the floor, somewhere out of the way. The butler returned to the kitchen immediately after dinner, but found that the antidote was gone. He looked for it everywhere he could think that he would have put it, but the poison was fast-acting and he soon died.

"When the scientist found out, he went into denial. First his wife had died, then his best friend. Life was no longer worth living, unless he could bring them back. He would not listen to the daughter's explanation of events, and locked himself in his lab, eating no food and drinking very little water for almost a week. The daughter pounded and pounded on the door, but he refused to open it for a daughter who accused his best friend of murder. He continued working, so close to bringing a new pokemon to life. The body of the servant was left in the kitchen.

"Then, the man had a breakthrough – by electrifying a blob of plasma, he created the pokemon Rotom. It is an extremely rare pokemon – not even I have ever seen one. But then the father died. Some say it was a heart attack or a stroke. Others say that the Rotom killed him with its electricity. More say he was simply in a state of exhaustion. Whatever it was, when the girl finally managed to open the door, she found her father dead. And the poor, innocent girl lost the will to live.

"It was perhaps several weeks later when the bodies were finally discovered. The only real facts we know is that the butler's body was found in a messy kitchen, and that the dead girl was found clutching the shirt of her dead father in the lab. The police took most of the lab equipment for study, but it was never put back. Only some books and some records of his experiments remained in what had been the greatest lab in all of Sinnoh.

"And now, the building gives out an ominous feeling. They say that the inhabitants are forever bound to that house by the tragedies that befell them, and continue to haunt it to this day. Rumor has it that further evidence can be found in the building itself, but none dare to go in there. And so goes the tragic story of the Old Chateau."

"Now that I've finished, I can only help but wonder why someone like you would want to hear that story. Would you mind telling me?"

Jenna looked curiously over at Gardenia. While Jenna herself had enjoyed the story, Gardenia was tightly gripping the cloth of her shorts. She was visibly shaking, and her eyes were scrunched tightly shut. Now that she thought about it, it seemed odd that someone who was so visibly afraid of ghost stories would request one to be told – especially at night.

Without changing her position, Gardenia said in almost a whisper, "A little girl went missing a few nights ago… and I think she's in that mansion."

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Hello everyone! This is my first fan-fic, originally started writing it to post on the pokemon forum: poketto no takara at poketto.proboards104 .com .(That's all supposed to be together in a web address, but every time I try to make it work, it won't let me put it together. Is there a rule against putting web addresses in your fanfics?) Anyway, hope you like it, please comment whether you do or don't. Also, I'm really looking for any comments/suggestions on my writing style, so if you'd like to point out that you hate some certain aspect of how I write, please tell me! Other than that, just want to give props to I'm Afraid of Jellyfish for telling me about this site. And Vampire Freak Forever for just being awesome. It probably won't end up being too terribly long, but who knows... I don't even know for sure how it will end yet. GO RANDOMNESS!


	2. Preparation

Disclaimer: I still don't own pokemon... sigh I own at least ten imaginary pokemon, though. Does that count?

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**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 2: Preparation_

"What?!" Cynthia exclaimed. "How do you know she's in there, and if she is, why hasn't anyone found her? Surely that old mansion would be one of the first places to look."

Gardenia kept looking at the floor as she replied quietly, "No one checked the Old Chateau because only adults were searching. The trees grow closely together all around it, and only by cutting them can any regular person get through. They automatically eliminated the possibility when they saw that no one had cut through the trees. But a little girl came to me a couple of days ago. She said that she and the missing girl played in Eterna Forest a lot with a wild Leafeon they had befriended.

"But before the girl's disappearance, she had been trying to convince the other two to go to the mansion with her. She kept on urging the issue, saying it would be fun, and that Leafeon would protect them. The Leafeon had shown them a small passage that walking pokemon use to get to the outside of the Chateau. It was very small – only large enough for small pokemon to get through, but the girl who talked to me said that when crawling, they could get through. The small passage isn't very noticeable, and the adults searching were too tall to see it. But neither the Leafeon nor the missing girl's friend wanted to go in. The girl had gotten upset, and even went home early one day – she disappeared that same night.

"So the girl thinks that she must have gone into the Old Chateau by herself. I went and checked it out, and saw the small hole through the trees the girl had talked about. But… I couldn't go in there. I decided to wait until you got here, Cynthia, so that I could hear the story and hopefully get you to come along and help. "

"How long has she been gone?" Jenna asked.

"A little over a week. Most of the search teams have given up looking for her in the woods, and are simply hoping that she is still alive, somewhere. No one thinks she was kidnapped – she disappeared during the night, and none of the doors or windows showed signs of forced entry. I would've gone to get others to go into the mansion for me, but…" Gardenia broke off her line of thought.

"But if you didn't go along with them, everyone would think of you as a horrible gym leader for the town." Cynthia finished. "Am I right?"

Gardenia nodded. "I think I can do it if you two are there with me. You two are strong, and I bet you aren't afraid of ghosts…"

Jenna thought, _Of course I'm not afraid of ghosts! That's silly!_, but decided to keep it to herself. She didn't want to hurt Gardenia's feelings.

"Of course we'll go with you, first thing in the morning. Going now wouldn't do any good – it's too dark to see a thing." Cynthia said. "Why don't you sleep here for now? I'm sure there's a spare cot or two in the closet." Cynthia opened the small closet and pulled out a folded-up collapsible cot, as well as some extra blankets and a pillow.

"Thanks. I don't really want to walk home right now… after hearing that story. By the way, is it true?"

"No one knows for sure." Cynthia answered. "All we know for sure are where the bodies were found. I have no idea how that story was started, or if it is even close to what happened. But it does remain that the butler was poisoned and the father and daughter were found dead in some sort of lab. As for the rumor that more answers can be found by going there, I'm not sure how that started. All I know is that I get bad vibes from that place, and we'd best take going there seriously."

Jenna thought this was ridiculous. Even if ghosts did exist, what could something without a body possibly do to a living person? But she kept her views to herself. They all went to bed fairly soon after that, different thoughts about ghosts and disappearing people racing through each of their dreams.

Cynthia awoke first the next morning, followed by Jenna, then Gardenia. They all got ready for the day, and they walked by the gym so Gardenia could tell them that she would be gone for the day. Jenna and Cynthia waited outside for her.

Once Gardenia came out, she said, "I really think we ought to bring a psychic or channeler along with us. If there are ghosts, it would really help."

"It sounds like a good idea," said Cynthia, "But where would we find one on such short notice? If it has already been a week since that girl disappeared, we need to find her as soon as possible."

"Don't worry – I know of someone who moved into town about a year ago. He's usually pretty reclusive, but I think he is fairly proficient at communicating with… with…" Gardenia couldn't finish her sentence.

"The dead?" Jenna said, trying to be helpful. Gardenia gulped and nodded, then began leading the others. They ended up walking to the far west edge of town, to a small house on the outskirts of the forest. Gardenia went to the door and knocked.

"Who is it?" Asked a male voice from within after a few seconds.

"I'm Gardenia, the gym leader. I've got a couple of friends out here with me. Could we come in?" the door opened, and a slender man could be seen. When Jenna saw him, she guessed he was in his early twenties, though he had a sort of youthful look to his face, making him look more like he was in his late teens. His hair was brown, as were his eyes, and he was about an average height – about half a head taller than Jenna herself, who was fourteen.

"Can I help you?" He said, not unkindly.

"Yes. Have you heard about the little girl that disappeared about a week ago?" Gardenia asked.

"Yeah, I did hear. Has she been found yet?"

"No." This time Cynthia replied. "Let me introduce myself briefly. My name is Cynthia, and this is Jenna. We are actually coming to ask for your help." She recounted what Gardenia had told them the night before, as well as their need for someone who could commune with the spirits.

He listened attentively, then said, "Do you know why I live so close to the forest? It's because of that house. For a constant living, a grow herbs for the herbalist shop on the north end of town, and they in turn give me a cut of their profits. But professionally, I am a channeler. I was interested in the Old Chateau, but when I went there, the negative aura it emanated frightened me. I didn't want to go in by myself, and I don't know anyone else well enough to ask. This, in truth, is the perfect opportunity for me. If you'll give me a minute, I'll gather my pokemon and some supplies, then we can head out immediately."

True to his word, he came back in just a couple of minutes, with a small pack on his back. And with that, they headed into the forest – to the infamous Old Chateau.

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Yay! End of part two! Well, this is a lame, slow part, but it was needed nonetheless. Please, if you're reading this, at least check out poketto.proboards104 .com! I'm trying to promote the site as much as possible - it's a great place to discuss pokemon. Anyway, please enjoy! And please review! (pretty-please with a pickle on top?)


	3. The Search Begins

Disclaimer: Pokemon. Is. Not. Owned. By. Me. If it was, then you wouldn't have Ash from the anime doing the same thing over and over and over again, season after season after season. If I did own pokemon, Misty comes back, and the anime would actually get something unheard of to the anime creators: a plot.

**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 3: The Search Begins_

It took the group about twenty minutes to arrive at their destination. In that time, the channeler introduced himself as Evan. Despite the morbid reason for their journey, he talked unconcernedly about himself. He said that he had grown up in Lavender Town, from way over in the Kanto region. It was there that he got his obsession with ghosts. He was able to develop his already natural channeling abilities and then came to the Sinnoh region to take up his career as a channeler. Jenna marveled at how far he had come – she couldn't even imagine crossing something as vast as the ocean. She still thought belief in the supernatural was rather stupid, but she nonetheless respected Evan for his perseverance. He was also a very agreeable guy, and Jenna found herself liking him by the time the reached the mansion.

Of course, when they did finally reach it, almost all joviality left. Gardenia shivered, and even Jenna imagined that she could feel a slight chill in the air. Evan seemed to cringe a bit. They all just stood there for a moment, in slight awe of the building before them. It was Cynthia who snapped out of it first. She released her Garchomp, breaking the silence.

"Garchomp, please cut down the trees blocking the way." she said. Garchomp tensed, and the fins on its arms seemed to become extra sharp. It leapt at one of the smaller trees that was blocking the way, and brought one of its fins down on the trunk. It easily sliced all the way through, making just enough room for a person to get through. She returned Garchomp to its pokeball, murmering a quick thanks.

"Thank you." Cynthia said as she returned Garchomp, "Now who will be the first to go in?"

"I'll go." Said Jenna after only a moment's hesitation. Though she was slightly creeped out by the Old Chateau now, she did not want to be considered a coward. She went boldly through the doorway of trees, followed by Evan, then Gardenia, and finally with Cynthia bringing up the rear. The grass past the trees – which had probably been a gorgeous lawn at some point – was overgrown and filled with weeds. Jenna could see signs of very few pokemon, which gave the place an even spookier tone. However, Jenna kept moving forward confidently. She was too proud to admit that even she was frightened of the house.

She paused for a moment when she reached the front doors so that they could go in as a group. She noticed the beautiful workmanship of the massive double doors, and thought it was a shame that a place like this had been left to rot in such a manner. She looked at the front and noticed that almost all of the windows were either cracked or broken entirely, and fissures were beginning to appear in what once were sturdy walls.

Jenna stopped admiring the building soon enough, and put her hand out to open the door.

"Wait just a moment…" Evan said, making Jenna stop with her hand still stretched out to open the door. He rummaged around in his pack a bit before removing a pokeball.

"Time to finally do some work, Natu." A small, green bird came out of the pokeball, and stood on the ground near Evan's feet. He picked up the odd-looking bird pokemon and placed it on his head, where it perched contentedly.

"This little guy is good at detecting the strength of spirits, as well as pinpointing their locations. This way, we can at least have some alert if something malevolent is here." Evan explained. "Now you can open the door."

Emily, who now realized she had kept her arm extended as Evan had let out his pokemon, scowled a bit at having stayed in such a strange position for so long. Then, she placed her hand on the ornate door handle and entered the dilapidated mansion.

The group walked into a huge room with an impressive double staircase leading up to a sort of balcony over the main floor. It reminded Jenna of the ballrooms she had seen in movies that took place in older times, though she couldn't tell which sort of era this place was from. Underneath the balcony, directly across the room from where they stood, was yet another ornate doorway. A strange, creature-like statue stood to the left of the doorway. Age showed everywhere Jenna looked: tiles crumbling, fissures in the walls, and stains where water had seeped in. There was a chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, but Jenna had no idea how the rusted chain that suspended it could possibly hold its weight.

She had taken only couple steps inside when it started. The room seemed to come to life. Chairs, which had been sitting near the walls of room, began to move back and forth. The chandelier swayed precariously, and the broken floor tiles began to rise into the end. A couple pots, which by some miracle still had live trees in them, tipped over and then righted themselves.

Jenna was shocked, and she took quick couple of steps back to the safety of the group. Gardenia was clinging onto Cynthia's arm, and Cynthia herself seemed tense, as if ready to fight this unseen force. Evan, however, seemed unconcerned.

"Tu." Said the Natu from its perch. The feather on the top of its head was raised straight up. Evan nodded, which in no way seemed to bother the natu on his head, then dug through his bag again.

"Cynthia or Jenna, could one of you bring out a pokemon?" He asked, while pulling out a small piece of paper with strange symbols written on it. Seeing as Gardenia was clinging to tightly to let Cynthia do much, Jenna reached into her small, duffle bag-like pack and pulled out a pokeball. She released the pokemon within, Sandy. The Sandslash came out tense, but then its tenseness turned into confusion as it noticed all the unexplainable happenings going on around the room.

"Sandslash, could you put this on?" asked even, as he looped a string through a small hole at the top of the paper.

"Sand?" Sandy said, looking up questioningly at Jenna. By now, the movements of the objects around them had gotten more erratic, but none of it seemed to be coming close enough to do any direct harm to the group. Jenna stayed wary of all that was going on around her, but turned her attention to the channeler.

"Her name is Sandy." Said Jenna to Evan. Then she turned to Sandy and motioned for her to go ahead and let him put it on. Sandy walked over to Evan, and allowed him to loop the homemade necklace around her neck. Almost immediately, the motions in the room stopped. The chandelier continued to sway, but this time it was simply from momentum. Tiles dropped back down to the floor, and the chairs stopped moving from side to side.

"What is this? What was all that just now?" Cynthia asked, bending down to examine the piece of paper now hanging from Sandy's neck.

"It's a cleanse tag. When a pokemon with you holds it, most other pokemon in the area go away." Evan explained.

"S-so that was all caused by pokemon?" asked Gardenia timidly.

"Yes." Evan replied. "Mainly gastly. We could still meet a couple of them, but most of them have left the building for the moment, due to the cleanse tag. This way, we can go on with our search unhindered."

Cynthia finished examining the cleanse tag and said, "Well, let's get going. If the girl is still in here, we need to find her. Where should we go first?"

"Why not straight?" asked Jenna, gesturing to the door that laid across the room from them. "It seems to be the only room on this floor, or at least the only room that connects to where we are now. That way we could eliminate possibilities of where the girl is from the ground floor up."

"But… Wouldn't that be the where the dining room is?" guessed Gardenia, with almost a whimper to her voice.

"Probably." Said Jenna, once she thought about it. "Is there a problem with it being the dining room?"

"Aren't kitchens normally located near the dining room?" Gardenia asked quietly, as if she was hoping the answer would be no.

"Normally. What's wrong with that?" Jenna replied, a slightly annoyed edge coming into her voice at being asked these ridiculous questions.

"Ahh, I see." Said Cynthia, before Gardenia could answer. "The kitchen is where the butler supposedly died. But I think Jenna is right about going there first – it will be easier to comb the house if we do it from the bottom up. Seeing as she's obviously not in this room, we'd best head into that room ahead, whether or not it is the dining room."

"But…" Gardenia meekly started to protest, but stopped as she realized that Cynthia's logic made sense. Since she was clearly outvoted, she crossed her arms tightly as if to reassure her self that she was still there, and remained quiet.

"Well, let's get going now that that's settled." Jenna said, and started walking towards the door across the room from them. She was a bit more confident now – she had stayed relatively calm throughout there first seemingly supernatural experience, and all it had turned out to be were a few mischievous ghost pokemon. _Of course there's no such thing as real ghosts_ she reassured herself, _or at the very least, none that can possibly harm the living._

"Wait." Evan said from the rear of the group. "Let me go first, so natu can detect any malignant spirits." Though Jenna had no idea what 'malignant' meant, she guessed that this was probably another load of superstitious poppycock. Nevertheless, she waited for Evan to take up the lead and followed him across the room.

"Hello!" Cynthia's shouted suddenly, making everyone jump. "Is anyone here!"

"What are you doing?" Gardenia asked in a fearful whisper. "You're going to draw all the ghosts right to us!"

"Any ghosts that are here would already know that we have come in, whether or not we yell." Evan said. "In fact, yelling for that little girl might get her to come out, meaning we get to leave sooner. What was the girl's name?"

"If you're sure…" Gardenia said, sounding unconvinced. "Her name is Maria, but everyone calls her Mia for short." As they continued walking across the room, they shouted out Mia's name – they even tried to shout all at the same time. But nothing stirred in the house. If she was indeed in the mansion, she was either ignoring their calls or couldn't hear them.

As they neared the doorway, the natu on Evan's said in its flat voice, "Na." It hopped in place on Evan's head, turning to point to the spot where the strange, creature-like statue sat. Evan stopped, and turned to look at it.

"You're right… that's interesting…" Evan said, apparently to himself. Jenna examined it from her spot behind Evan, just a few feet away from it. At first glance it appeared to be an ordinary statue, but on closer examination, the eyes weren't normal. In fact, if Jenna would have had to describe it, they almost looked like… like they were _glaring_.

"What's wrong?" asked Cynthia. She seemed unperturbed by the statue, though how she could possibly miss those eyes, Jenna couldn't say. They seemed to bore into her very soul the more she looked at them, and she soon averted her gaze to avoid the uncomfortably feeling.

"There's a spirit trapped here." Evan said. He was about to continue on, but Gardenia gave a soft shreek and ducked back behind Cynthia. _That's... embarrasing. _Jenna couldn't help but think.

"Get rid of it! I don't want to be within twenty miles of a ghost!" Gardenia said to Evan.

Evan sighed, then said, "Don't worry - this one won't hurt you. It's certainly not a friendly spirit, but it has no ill intent towards us. Not to mention, it seems tied to this statue. It couldn't hurt us, even if it wanted to. For now, let's keep moving - we need to find Mia. I'll come back later and try to send this spirit on, away from this world." He waited for a moment, as if to see if there would be any objections, then pushed on the door in front of him to continue on to the next room.

Jenna flinched as the door came crashing down to the floor. Apparently, the hinges had long been rusting away, and what was left of them had not been enough to hold the door up. Evan payed little mind to it, and simply walked over the shattered remains of the doorway, with Jenna close behind. Jenna vaguely heard the natu give a quick, sharp, "Tu!", but paid it no mind. She was too busy admiring her surroundings. She now found herself in a massive dining room, with a huge table in the center. Despite the years, a white linen tablecloth was still on the table, though numerous stains tainted the fraying and discolored fabric. Even the candlesticks - which appeared to be pure silver - remained after all these years. It was rather dim in the room, but enough light filtered in from windows and numerous cracks in the wall to allow them to see. To her left was a room where Jenna could see a couple of bins of trash - she guessed it was the infamous kitchen. To her right was another room, though she could see none of the contents within from her position.

She stepped forward until she was directly behind Evan, who was stopped dead. Sandy nearly walked into the back of Jenna's legs. Jenna was about to ask him what he was doing when she followed his eyes. Jenna nearly cried out in surprise. In front of them, directly across the table, was a man. The top of his head was bald, but the back of his head was covered with thick white hair, that wrapped around his face to form a beard. He stared at the two of them, his face completely expressionless. Despite his outward demeanor, Jenna felt an almost overwhelming feeling of resent coming from him. Though she could have just been imagining it, due to the state her frightened mind was in. Cynthia was still gently coaxing Gardenia to enter the room, and did not realize that anyone else was in there.

Jenna was about to ask the man what he was doing here, when the man turned and actually _floated _away. If that enough wasn't strange enough, he then glided through the wall, into where Jenna had guessed the kitchen was. As Jenna and Evan stood gaping, Cynthia and Gardenia finally entered the room. They walked up behind the two surprised individuals, and asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

This seemed to awake both Jenna and Evan from their thoughts. Evan muttered something to himself about that being the first time any ghost he had seen had so openly shown itself. Jenna turned around, incredulous that they missed it.

"You didn't see that?! How could you not have seen that?" asked Jenna, in little more than a whisper.

"W-what was it?" Gardenia questioned, sounding as if she really would rather not know.

"It was a spirit." Evan said. He seemed to have calmed down more, and was more or less back to his regular self. "The spirit of an older man. He showed himself to us, and went off that way." Evan said, gesturing to the room to their left. "Natu says that it is quite malevolent, and that it has a fair amount of power. We had best tread carefully - this could end up more dangerous than I had thought. Much more dangerous."

* * *

Oh my gosh, my own story is giving me chills... It probably doesn't help that I'm playing the Old Chateau background music as I write this... Anyway, we're finally getting into something interesting. If you thought this part was scary (which admittedly, you may not have...), then just wait for the next one. I still only have a vague concept of what I will be doing, but even that gives me goosebumps... Hope you're liking it. I'll yet again send out my plea for you to go to poketto.proboards104. com - it's a great pokemon forum. Also, a quick note that may come into play in the next part - the Old Chateau is not room for room like it is in the game. The characters will stick mainly to those main rooms, but realize that there will probably be other hallways and such; I mean, this _is _a mansion. But you can worry about that when the time comes. I think I already did this in my first chapter, but I've yet again got to congratulate I'm afraid of jellyfish (/imafraidofjellyfish) and Vampire Freak Forever (/vampirefreakforever) just for being two of the most awesome people I know. If you like randomness, check out their fanfics... or at least I'm afraid of Jellyfish's Harry Potter fanfics.


	4. The Need to Fight

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ash Ketchum, Brock, Misty, the other lame girls who were introduced into the anime to replace Misty, pikachu, eevee, togepi, or any other thing associated with pokemon. Unless you count my over one thousand pokemon cards, my pokemon games, and my numerous pokemon figurines. Oh, and my Jamaican Pikachu doll. I guess if you count those, then I own quite a bit of pokemon. But all in all... you get what I mean... or at least I hope you get what I mean.

* * *

**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 4: The Need to Fight_

If Jenna hadn't been frightened before, she was now. Before now, she had always thought that the scariest moment of her life would always be when she faced Palkia at Spear Pillar. The sheer might of the legendary pokemon had frightened her, and every now and then still gave her nightmares. That kind of power was something that was seen once in a lifetime at most, and Jenna the fact that the fate of the world had rested on her subduing it... Whenever she recalled it, she wondered how she possibly could have done it without passing out. It was the kind of experience that was both awe-inspiring and traumatizing, and not the kind of situation she'd want to be put in again.

But this was different.

Here, in this seemingly abandoned house, she didn't know what she was up against. At the very least, when she had fought Palkia, Jenna had known exactly what Palkia was, and that the only thing she had to worry about was its power. Now, she was facing the unknown. She had no idea what this entity could do, whether it was powerful or weak, and most importantly, if it wanted to harm her. She didn't know how to fight it, or if it even could be fought. She didn't want to meet whatever it was again, in case it was truly a power to be reckoned with.

And yet... She nonetheless felt a sort of urge to find out what it was. It reminded her of how she had acted during her journey. Whenever there was trouble or danger, she would poke her nose into other people's business. Sometimes it was out of pure curiosity. But most of the time... Most of the time it was like now: an unexplainable urge to be exactly where the action is and to do something to affect it, no matter how possibly dangerous it might be. She couldn't explain it with words, but she knew that - despite her fears - there was nothing she wanted better to do than follow that ghost and find out what was going on. And even more so than that, she felt that she needed to prove she was more powerful than this new force, just as she had felt compelled to beat the Pokemon League, Team Galactic, and the legendary Palkia. She knew she would regret it if she backed out now - her pride in her own power wouldn't possibly let her do such a thing. Somewhere in the back of her mind, that little voice called instinct started screaming at her not to go on with this.

Jenna had stopped listening to that voice long ago.

"Well, lets keep on looking for that girl." Jenna said, pushing away her fears. Now that she had actually seen this ghost, more fear had come. But with that fear came almost a confirmation to Jenna's mind that there was something that she could put herself against in this house, which gave her courage to go on. Now that she knew that this wasn't all just a search for a lost little girl, it seemed as if her trip to the decrepit mansion had a purpose. With renewed determination, she turned to the left and took a few steps, pausing and glancing back for a few moments to see if the others were coming.

"If that's where the ghost went, then there's no way I'm ever going to enter that room!" Gardenia said. Gardenia wasn't the only one who was concerned about the ghost - Jenna could detect the tiniest of hint of worry in Evan's eyes, though he concealed it well.

"Gardenia," said Cynthia softly, "we need to keep on moving. If little Mia has been out here for as long as you say, it's our top priority to find her - no matter the obstacle." Gardenia said nothing, but her demeanor told Cynthia that she was staying put.

"I suppose you don't have to come with us into the room." Said Evan in a flat voice. Gardenia perked up. "You could always just wait out here for us - all alone."

Gardenia groaned, realizing her predicament. "Fine, I'll go with you - just don't make me walk in the very back or the very front!" Cynthia nodded, then gestured for Gardenia to walk in front of her. Gardenia took a tentative step forward, and Jenna took that as her cue to start moving. She could hear Evan following closely behind her, followed by Gardenia and Cynthia. It seemed as if their footsteps were gunshots in the quiet of the gigantic dining room. Though Jenna no longer cared if they were heard or not by ghosts, Gardenia half flinched every time a loose piece of tile made a particularly loud noise beneath her feet.

Soon enough, Jenna reached the open doorway to the room, which she went through without another moment's hesitation. Evan was right behind her.

"Natu." said the bird pokemon. Evan nodded, partially to himself, and said, "We think the spirit is still in here, but it's concealing itself. Of course, it may not be in here at all - but my gut is telling me otherwise, and I learned long ago that it's normally right."

Behind them, Gardenia barely peeked into the large kitchen, and said meekly, "Okay, she's not in here. Let's keep moving."

Jenna rolled her eyes. Inside, her heart was pounding - with fear or anticipation or a mixture of the two she wasn't sure. But on the outside, she definitely wanted to make sure that she kept her outward demeanor.

"Don't act so frightened - whatever it is can't hurt us." Jenna said. In all truth, she was hoping that the ghost would reveal itself - she wanted to try to challenge it, and see if she could beat it. She guessed that perhaps Sandy couldn't do much against a ghost, but she guessed that her Golduck, Silver, would be able to use his psychic powers in some way to beat back the spirit. And that possibility gave her the boldness to want to face it.

At Jenna's comment, Evan's face turned grave. "Don't underestimate spirits. While some are truly harmless, others - like this one - can be dangerous. If you can't understand this, then you can leave the search to us. I won't let you stay in here and endanger yourself with that kind of mentality."

Despite Evan's good intentions, this really enraged Jenna. Here she was, psyched to beat whatever entity this was, and Evan had the audacity to imply that she couldn't fight it! Not only that, he was going to make her leave the Chateau like a disobedient child! Even if she was young compared to him and the others, she was _not _going to let herself be treated like a little kid. She had her heart set on battling the entity, and Evan's comment only made her all the more determined.

"Oh yeah?" asked Jenna in an impertinent tone. "What's it going to do? Float through me? I'm _sooo _scared." Cynthia, who had just walked in through the doorway, began to say something. Jenna cut her off, and continued, "I bet that that ghost couldn't even lay one of his non-existant fingers on me. In fact, I _dare _him to even try touching me.

"Do you hear that!" she yelled to the empty kitchen, her impudent tirade reaching its height. "I dare you to just try and do something to me, Ghost! Just -" Jenna was cut off as Evan's hand clasped over her mouth. He had just recovered from his initial shock at her outburst, and had regained enough sense to know he had to shut her up. She screamed into his hand and attempted to bite him, but his hand was strong and steady - her mouth could not break free. She kept on struggling, trying to punch him or get his hand away, but Cynthia came over and grabbed her hands, keeping her from doing even this. Nonetheless, she kept fighting.

"Jenna, stop this!" Cythia commanded. "Be reasonable! I've never seen you act like this!" Jenna was too outraged. She continued rebelling against her captors, doing her best to release herself. The three were so occupied that only Gardenia, who was still at the door, noticed when the temperature of the room dropped dramatically. She let out a small scream, and clutched the decaying doorway as hard as she could.

"Natu!" said the psychic bird urgently from where it was still perched on Evan's head, but Evan appeared not to hear.

"Evan..." Gardenia said, in a very squeaky voice. He didn't hear. She started to say his name again, this time louder, but it was already too late.

Suddenly, Jenna's struggling stopped. Evan immediately let go of her and, realizing something was wrong, called out a Girafarig from one of his pokeballs. Cynthia let go as well, and Jenna seemed to sway in place, as if about to fall over. Her eyes were half closed and had a glazed look to them. Her hands were clenched at her sides. Inside her mind, a fierce battle was taking place. An alien presence had somehow entered her mind and was taking control of her body, and her will was doing all it could to fight it off. It seemed as if her consciousness and the intruder's consciousness were wrestling with each other, both fighting earnestly to get the advantage. But Jenna didn't stand a chance. Whatever this was was bigger, stronger, and much more focused than Jenna's will could handle. A blackness seemed to come upon her awareness like a wet blanket, and just before she lost consciousness, she managed to let out a last thought.

_Why is this happening to me?_

Inside her mind, a rich, masculine, and cruel-sounding voice answered, _Because you invited me._ And with that last answer, her mind blacked out.

* * *

Thank you for reading part 4 of my story! Unless you just skipped to this little ending blurb, in which case, Shame on you! Anyway, I find this the part where it starts to get really suspenseful. I still hope anyone sho is reading this story is liking it. Yet again, I'll send out my plea for anyone who wants to talk about pokemon (and read some other awesome fanfics as well as join pokemon RPs) to please join 104. com! It's a great site, and since I don't know anyone in real life I can promote it to, you guys are my only hope! Please join!

Also, please review! I've really been trying to improve my writing so that I could one day perhaps get a real book published, but I can't improve without criticism! Whether you absolutely hate or totally love something about my writing, I really would like to know! I got a comment on my last chapter (when I posted it on another site) that I needed to show more of Jenna's character here, which I tried to do. I need to know what you guys (and girls) think!


	5. Possession

DISCLAIMER: Do I really have to keep on saying this? Probably not, but it's fun to think of new stuff to say... So yeah, I don't own pokemon, nor do I own a mango, a Japanese weaving, or this computer that I'm using. If anyone would like to give me this stuff, I probably wouldn't take them (though a new computer sounds nice and a mango sounds delicious), but I would thank you for the thought.

* * *

**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 5: Possession_

Evan, who had remained fairly calm since entering the house, was now tense. He stood at the ready just a few feet away from Jenna, who was doing nothing more than staring at him with bright, inquisitive eyes. Natu's feather remained standing straight up on top of its head, and the Girafarig Evan had called out was standing by his side, even more tense than its master. Cynthia had enough sense to take a few steps back from Jenna, so that Jenna was standing almost exactly in between her and Evan. Gardenia was still at her position in the doorway, six or seven feet behind where Evan was standing.

No one said anything for a good long minute. Jenna's hands flexed a couple of times, but her eyes never left Evan. Cynthia was uncertain as to what was going on, and thought it best to wait and see what would happen. Gardenia was scared stiff. She had no more idea that Cynthia what was going on, but her paranoia and instinct told her that something was definitely wrong with Jenna.

Without any noticeable forewarning, Jenna took a step forward towards where Evan was. She was immediately stopped by a beam of psychic energy directed at the floor directly in front of her, fired by the Girafarig.

"Evan!" Cynthia shouted, taking a short step towards him and Jenna. "What are you doing! You're going to hurt -" Evan raised a hand to cut her off. He was concentrating totally on Jenna, who now had an odd sort of smile on her face. Cynthia, confused, stopped her reprimand.

Evan spoke up, his eyes drilling into Jenna, "Who are you?"

The grin on Jenna's face grew a bit wider as she replied, "My name once was Alfred Kershen. I was a butler here in this house." Gardenia let out a little peep of fear at this. Though Jenna's voice remained the same tone as it had always been, it was obvious that the Jenna that Cynthia and Gardenia knew wasn't the one speaking. Cynthia stood, mouth agape at Jenna's - or, more accurately, Alfred's - words.

Evan spoke again. "Leave the girl's body. She didn't know what she was saying." A drop of sweat could be seen running down the side of his face as his said this; whether it was the amount of his concentration or some outside force, Evan was obviously tiring himself somehow.

Jenna's head tilted slightly to the side, as if in curiosity. "Why would I do that?" the butler asked, using Jenna as a puppet. "I have been trapped in this kitchen for decades, and this girl's body is the only way I can get out and have my revenge. Please stand aside."

Evan's jaw clenched. "And what revenge would you be planning on taking?"

The butler, through Jenna, answered, "I have to kill the girl who caused my own death. I know her spirit still haunts these halls, taunting me with her presence. Just recently, her spirit occupied another living being - making this my perfect opportunity to be rid of her. Now, if you'll excuse me - " Jenna's body took another step forward, only to be hit in the shoulder with another psybeam. The body took a step back as Jenna's face grimaced. The bag she had hanging from her right arm got in the way a bit as her hand reached up to clutch the hit left shoulder.

Sandy, who had been standing stunned off to the side, jumped in between the Girafarig and Jenna. The sandslash had been confused at what was happening this whole time. When Cynthia and Evan had held Jenna down, the distressed pokemon had not known whether or not to help her trainer, since Jenna had been traveling with Cynthia for a while. But injuring Jenna had been too much.

"Slash!" the pokemon yelled in anger at Evan and his Girafarig.

"Sandy," said Evan quitely, with more than a hint of urgency behind his tone, "Your master isn't in control of herself. If we don't stop her, something very bad could happen to her."

Sandslash, very confused at this point, remained tensed as she turned to look back at her trainer. What she saw was, physically, her trainer. But behind that, almost imperceptible, was a malevolence that Sandy knew Jenna never had.

"Sand...?" asked the bewildered sandslash, desperate to have her trainer reassure her.

The slight smile was back on Jenna's face again. She talked partially to herself, and partially to Evan, saying, "Ah... yes. I can see as I look through her memories that this girl is a trainer. Quite powerful, if I'm not mistake. And this is Sandy, her first pokemon. And..." The spirit controlling Jenna had her unzip the bag she carried and pull out another pokeball. She tossed it into the air, releasing the golduck from within. The psychic type, unlike Sandy, was immediately aware that something was wrong with his master. He could sense the malignant aura emanating from Jenna's body, totally covering her own, comforting presence. The golduck tensed, as if it would join Evan in fighting. Sandy looked ever more confused at this, wondering how golduck could possibly turn on their own trainer.

"And this is Silver..." finished the spirit, with a look of satisfaction on Jenna's face. The spirit directed Jenna's attention to the two pokemon. "Both of you, listen. Do exactly as I say or that 'something very bad' that this poor excuse for a psychic was talking about will happen to your trainer. Hold these people here and keep them from following me." Silver and Sandy looked at each other hesitantly, unsure of whether or not to obey.

The spirit sighed at their delay, then burrowed through Jenna's bag before coming out with a swiss army knife, opening it to one of the blades. He moved the knife in Jenna's right hand over to her left arm before pressing firmly into the soft underside of her arm. A small trickle of blood to run down her arm.

"This is what I will do to her neck if you refuse to listen to reason. I can escape her body before she dies of blood loss, but it will be too late for anyone to save her. And there is so much more I can do just by damaging her mind alone." Said the spirit through Jenna. The two pokemon, afraid for their master's safety, quickly turned to Evan. They paused for only a moment, as if to show their regret, before attacking. A strong hydro pump hit the Girafarig, who barely managed to dig its hooves into the ground to keep itself upright. Sandy rolled into a ball a went straight towards Evan, who barely managed throw himself to the side in time. Jenna's body made a dash for it, running straight past Gardenia as she scurried out of the way. Cynthia summoned her Milotic to try and stop Jenna's body, but it was already too late - the spirit was out of the room.

It was chaos in the decrepit kitchen. Cynthia rushed forward, gesturing for Milotic to follow, but was thrown back by a psychic attack from the golduck. Girafarig hit the distracted golduck in the back with a psybeam, but the attack barely seemed to affect him. Milotic rushed over to her fallen master's side, who lay groaning on the floor. A water pulse from the powerful golduck KO'd the already injured Girafarig. Meanwhile, as the rolling sandslash slowed its momentum to turn and try to hit Evan, Evan released his most powerful pokemon: an Alakazam. Using psychic, the Alakazam suspended the Sandy in the air, who released itself from its curled-up rollout position. Without Jenna's direction, the sandslash could not figure out what to do and flailed about helplessly in the air. Seeing as both Alakazam and Evan had all their attention focused on the sandslash, neither noticed Silver's rapid approach towards Alakazam. In one powerful movement, he unleashed a powerful mega punch to the back of Alakazam's head, knocking it out immediately. Sandy fell to the ground, slightly flustered but otherwise unharmed.

Thankfully, Cynthia had regained her senses by now. She summoned her Roserade from its pokeball, and commanded a sleep powder on the area where Evan and the battling was going on. Evan, Silver, and Sandy all began to droop before falling over, totally asleep. She recalled the Roserade, then had Milotic do a weak water gun to awaken Evan. He woke easily, and quickly took tabs of everything around him. As he sat up, Cynthia and her Milotic were hovering near him, concerned. His natu, who had been thrown off Evan's head when he dove to avoid Sandy's initial attack, hopped onto its master's head. Around him, the unconscious and sleeping bodies of Alakazam, Girafarig, Sandy, and Silver lay sprawled out on the floor. A bit farther off, Gardenia lay on the ground next to an overturned trash can, which she had tripped over in her haste to get out of Jenna's way. Evan quickly got up from the ground, recalling his injured pokemon.

He turned to Cynthia. "We have to catch Jenna _now. _Do you remember what that spirit said earlier? Another spirit - the one he's after - just possessed some other living being. That has to be the girl we're looking for. Whether or not your legend of this place is true or not, that spirit of a butler is going to kill that little girl. And even if that is the reason he's been staying around in this world, I doubt a spirit like that would pass on once a task like murder is complete. He'll either continue possessing Jenna's body and do his destruction from there, or - more likely - dispose of Jenna. Once he's murdered the little girl, he probably won't need Jenna, since his body may no longer be bound to the kitchen."

"And what do you need me to do?" Asked Cynthia, realizing that Evan was the one who needed to take charge of the situation.

"I need you to incapacitate Silver and Sandy somehow, before they wake up. Then, you and Gardenia will need to come with me. We have to find that little girl. I think if we can get the spirit inside of her to move on to the next world, then the spirit inside Jenna will dissapate, without being able to accomplish the mission for which it stayed in this world. If I run into Jenna and the spirit possessing her by myself, I'll have no chance at defeating her pokemon - they're too strong."

Cynthia nodded and seemed to think for a moment. She then turned to Milotic.

"Please freeze the sandslash and the golduck - gently, if that's possible." Milotic turned to the two sleeping pokemon, releasing an ice beam that froze the two pokemon. Cynthia thanked Milotic before returning it to it's pokeball and summoning her smaller, more mobile Lucario. If they were going to be searching the house, Lucario would be much more of a help than Milotic. Cynthia looked to Evan, who nodded as if in approval. He turned and, followed by Cynthia, went over to where Gardenia was laying on the ground. She had been far enough away from the battle that she had avoided the main part of the sleep powder attack, though she still looked a bit drowzy. Evan offered a hand to help her up.

Gardenia shifted position a bit to grab his hand and, in the process, felt the hand nearest the trash basket touch something wet and sticky. She jerked her hand away and quickly jumped off the ground without Evan's help.

"S-something's wet there!" She stuttered out. Gardenia's mind had automatically gone to the worst possible wet substance that she could think of - blood. Evan looked where she had been sitting, and noticed a small, slightly green-tinted puddle seeping between the shattered floor tiles and into the earth below. He noticed that it originated from the upside-down waste basket, which he quickly righted. Ancient paper and fruit rinds lay on the ground where it had been. After digging through it tentatively, his eyes alighted on the source of the liquid, which he reached in to grab.

As he pulled out the object, Cynthia recalled the actions of the little girl from the legend she had told the night before:

_She snuck into the kitchen and hid the antidote in the trash, then used substitute to send a replica of herself back to eat._

And she remembered what had happened after that.

_The butler returned to the kitchen immediately after dinner, but found that the antidote was gone. He looked for it everywhere he could think that he would have put it, but the poison was fast-acting and he soon died._

She gasped at the cracked, ancient vial that Evan pulled out of the pile. It was about half filled with a green liquid, which dripped out of a crack that ran along most of the length of the container. Cynthia, who was an expert on ancient items - since they were often used in her legends - knew immediately what Evan was holding -

A decades-old antidote flask.

* * *

Man, the further I go in this, the more it seems I have to go... I really wasn't planning on doing a fanfic this long, but I suppose I'm glad - I love writing this. (Hope you enjoy reading it as well!) Anyway, I really no longer have any idea how long this is going to end up. I keep on writing way more than I expect (which I consider a good thing).

Please review! As I keep on saying, I need all the writing tips I can get!

And I would like to thank Murkrowfeather for being the first (and, so far, only) one to review my story on this site! THANK YOU SO MUCH! It makes me really glad to know that you like it. Also, I love your pen name. So.. yeah... THANKS!


	6. Hurry!

DISCLAIMER: I own many things. My thoughts, my imagination, my insanity.... but I ramble. My point is, of the many things I do own, pokemon (not counting figurines, cards, games, etc) is not among them.

* * *

**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 6: Hurry!_

The remaining trio of humans were shocked by the apparent proof of the validity of Cynthia's legend, but they knew that they had to keep moving. They left the kitchen, went back out through the dining room, and found themselves back in the main room. Evan was leading the way, with Cynthia and her lucario following behind. Gardenia, though reluctant to continue with their quest, made it a top priority to stay up with the others; she had no desire to be left alone when a ghost with super-powered pokemon was roaming the halls.

Evan took the first step into the room, and swore as every loose object in the room began its eratic movement. Evan swore, startling Cynthia - he hadn't struck her as one who was inclined to profanity.

"We don't have time for this!" He muttered angrily as he threw his bag on the ground, unzipping it and pulling out another piece of paper like the one Sandy had carried before. He quickly strung it and, with Cynthia's permission, tied it around Lucario's neck like a necklace. Once again, the motion stopped and the mansion was quiet, save for the creakings and groanings that came naturally from a place so old. As soon as it was calm, Evan grabbed his bag and, at a quick walk, strode over to the staircase on his right. It was the staircase closest to the glaring statue, which made Gardenia quicken her pace even more, so that she was almost stepping on Cynthia's heels.

They were now on the balcony, overlooking the massive room below. But they had no time for sightseeing. Ignoring some smaller passageways, apparently made for the use of servants, Evan went quickly into the room that stood directly opposite the top of the stairs. The door was totally gone from its hinges, and was slowly decomposing on the floor just inside the doorway. As soon as they were in, it was obvious that the Jenna and the spirit that controlled her was not there. Some flimsy boxes filled with remnants of what was once paper lined the floor on the left side of the room, and a bookshelf with only a few decaying books was in the far right corner. Once more, some small passages led off from the room, but Evan ignored them.

He was just turning around to leave when Cynthia asked, "Why aren't we taking any of those smaller hallways? Wouldn't it make sense that the spirit would use those, in order to avoid us?"

"That's the point." Evan said. "Those passageways would be the perfect way to avoid us, mainly because we have no idea how to get around in there. These old mansions often have a labarinth of small halls, so that servants - who would be wise to the layout - could get easily from one place of the house to another. If this butler did work here, then he would know all of the passageways like the back of his hand. We, on the other hand, would get hopelessly lost." He scowled, then shook his head as if to rid himself of something. The natu on top stayed firmly in place. "We don't have time for this!" he continued. "We need to keep on moving!" He started to head out of the door past Gardenia, then stopped as lucario stepped past him into the center of the room. It had its snout raised in the air, as if it was smelling for something. Sure enough, it seemed to zero in on its target, walking slowly to the back right corner of the room, where the bookshelf was. Apparently, there was a space in between the shelf and the wall, for Lucario reached his paws behind it. He came out holding something circular in his paws, with an odd lump on the top of it.

Cynthia barely kept herself from gasping as she had before. In between lucarios paws was plate. Of course, the plate itself was not the object of her surprise. Rather, it was the small, slightly moldy pastry that lay on top that shocked her. While she had never seen any type of gateau in real life, she knew it was a sort of cake, similar to what this item of food must once have been. Gardenia, who remembered -out of fear - every detail of the story Cynthia had told, recognized it immediately. At first Evan simply seemed agitated by this further delay and turned once again to leave, but the look of shock on the two women's faces made his realize that he had missed something. He turned back around and, after a couple of seconds, realized what it was.

Of course, with adrenaline now coursing through his veins, he could not stand and stare for long. "And so, yet more evidence in favor of the legend. But it does not matter whether or not we prove the legend right or wrong - we have to save the two possessed people in this house. We have to hurry." He paused briefly, as if to let the message sink in. "Now let's go."

He now left the room, coming back out the way they had come. Once more, the two women and Cynthia's lucario followed. He strode purposefully towards the doorway at the center of the balcony, but the time it took him to get there was both tense and awkward at the same time. Cynthia studied a faded painting on the wall as they passed, which depicted a beautiful forest along the edge of a lake. At one point in time, it may have been priceless: now, it wouldn't even be worth the canvas it was painted on. No one spoke; it seemed inappropriate. Every now and then, a creak or a snap from another part of the house would sound, but they had no way of knowing if this was ghosts, pokemon, or just the natural noises of the house.

Their silence remained as they stepped into the hallway beyond. It stretched equal distances to the left and right. Five main doors - one right in front, two to the right, and two to the left - stood in the opposite wall, along with a few more small servant passages. Evan stood just inside the hallway, and asked "Natu, can you sense any spirits?"

Natu simple stared for a moment, then answered, "Natu."

"Can you tell which is which, or pinpoint where they are?" Evan asked in response.

"Na."

"Well, we'll just have to guesss and hope we can find them." Said Evan as he headed straight forward for the doorway in front of him. A cracking noise sounded from somewhere in the house, but Evan ignored it.

Natu remained silent as they entered the room, indicating to Evan that there was nothing unnatural about the sight before them. Two beds were main focus of the room, with a couple of paintings and old bookshelves as the only other furnishings. As Cynthia entered the room behind Evan, she asked, "How do you know what your natu says? I've heard of close bonds with pokemon, but you seem to understand exactly what it says."

Evan went over to a side passage and took a quick peek, checking to see if any ghosts or people were present there, but all was normal. "I understand natu because of our psychic abilities. While we can't necessarily talk with words, we can mentally give each other pictures and ideas to communicate with each other."

"Amazing..." Cynthia said as Evan glanced down a passage on the left side of the room. Once more, neither he nor his natu detected anything in the servant passage, physical or spiritual. He was heading over to the last passage at the back part of the room when Lucario suddenly tensed. The sound of running footsteps could be heard passing outside the room, in the main hallway. Cynthia and Evan turned around quickly, but only caught the briefest glimpse of pink tennis shoe. But Gardenia, who had been closest to the door at the time, had heard the footsteps before the others and had turned around in time to see Mia, the little girl were searching for, dart past. The look on her face, though only briefly seen by Gardenia, was one of fear and panic.

"That was her!" Gardenia said. Taking action for the first time, she dashed out of the room and chased after Mia. Lucario, Cynthia, and Evan followed in close pursuit. Despite the little girl's age and size, she managed to stay just ahead of Gardenia as she dashed down the hallway, towards the door farthest right from the entrance to the hall.

"Stop! It's me, Gardenia!" The little girl payed no heed to the shouts. She turned as she reached the open doorway and dashed inside, without slowing her pace. Gardenia had to slow down a bit to make the turn, and was afraid that she would lose sight of the girl. As she entered the room, the girl was heading for a servant hall at the back of the room. Gardenia put on an extra burst of speed to catch her, but there was no need. The girl lost her footing on a loose tile and stumbled, falling hard to the ground. Almost immediately, she attempted to get up and start running, but Gardenia caught up with her and held her firm. Gardenia knelt on the ground, holding the girls arms in her hands. Despite struggling on the little girl's part, Gardenia turned the girl to face her.

"Mia! Don't you remember me? I'm Gardenia, remember?!?"

The girl continued to struggle. "Let me go! I have to run! He's gonna catch me!" The fear in her eyes was apparent, and she seemed almost in hysterics. Gardenia, shocked by the Mia's apparent forgetfulness of her, loosened her grip and nearly let go. This was when Evan stepped in. He grabbed the girl firmly by one of her arms before Gardenia let go, and turned the girl to face him.

"Who are you?" asked Evan calmly, despite the girl's desperate attempts to break free. He was crouching, so as to be eye to eye with the girl.

"I'm Liza! Now let me go!"

"Who's going to get you?" Evan asked. Though his demeanor stayed calm, his eyes were intense, like when he had talked to the spirit in possession of Jenna.

"The butler! Alfred! He's gonna get me and kill me! I need to go!" She scratched and clawed at Evan's arms, but his grip did not loosen. Suddenly, she went still, her eyes wide. She looked fearfully down the side passage at the left side of the room, then resumed her attempts to break free with new urgency.

"He's almost here! LET ME GO!"

Evan looked worried. "Get out of the girl's body. If you get hurt while in her body, the girl your possessing gets hurt, too! Do you really want that?"

The girls attempts at escape got a little less vigorous as she replied. "No. But I can't get out! I'm stuck in here!"

"Why don't you pass on?" asked Evan.

"I can't leave daddy here!" Suddenly, a noise sounded from down the left servant passage. Lucario tensed, and the girl grew completely hysterical.

"He's here! He's gonna kill me! I don't want to die! I can't leave daddy here all alone!" Evan dragged the now weeping girl to the right side of the room, opposite of where the noise had been heard. Another servant passageway was right next to them, and Evan was ready to drag the girl down it with him if need be. Gardenia stayed near him, and Cynthia and her lucario stood in the center of the room, ready for a fight.

First, they heard the steps. The hall was too dark to see who was coming, but the steps were deliberate and calm. It didn't take long for the person they were dreading to come out from the gloom, though. Jenna's body walked slowly into the room, her eyes taking in the sight before her: Cynthia and a lucario ready for battle, with Evan and Gardenia hunkered down behind them. But, of course, she cared little for these people. What her eyes focused on was the girl, who had now ceased her screaming and was attempting to hide behind Evan. A cruel smile lit up Jenna's face as she stood in the doorway of the servant hallway. The spirit inside her wasted no time getting to the point.

"Give me the girl. She is a murderer, and I will have my vengeance. Either that, or the girl whose body I'm in - Jenna, wasn't it? - will die. If you give the girl to me now, I will leave Jenna unharmed."

Cynthia, afraid of doing anything that would condemn Jenna, turned to Evan for guidance. Lucario kept his eyes trained on Jenna.

"The spirit still needs Jenna's body to get around. He's not going to be rid of her that easily." Evan assured.

Cynthia turned back to Jenna, confident in Evan's advice.

Jenna's body sighed as the spirit said through her, "Very well. This girl still has more pokemon; I'm sure they will be more than happy to take my threats seriously." Jenna's hand reached into her bag, pulling out two more pokeballs. She tossed them into the air, releasing a charizard and a nidoqueen. The nidoqueen did not seem to see anything out of the ordinary, and prepared itself for a fight. The charizard, on the other hand, looked back at Jenna and immediately knew something was not right.

"Okay, Flame and Stella. You will beat the people who stand in my way so I may get my hands on that little girl. Either that, or your trainer dies." Flame, though she had sensed something amiss, was confused by Jenna's words. Once more, Jenna hand reached into her bag and pulled out a pocket knife. She made another, longer gash next to the still oozing first one. Flame, though still confused, asked no more questions. Immediately, she turned and sent a powerful flamethrower attack at lucario, catching him by surprise. He held his ground, but took alot of damage. Cynthia, reacting quickly, sent out her garchomp to help.

"Lucario, use aura sphere on the nidoqueen!" A blue ball of energy began to accumulate in lucarias paws, which he shot at the Stella. She took the hit and held her ground. She hardly seemed phased by the attack. She began to glow with a mysterious energy as she prepared for a superpower attack.

Cynthia recognized the danger. "Lucario, use quick attack before it can charge!" Lucario ran forward, but was stopped as a flamethrower from Flame hit the ground in between him and Stella. The tiles blackened and the floor groaned treacherously, but it held together. Stella, who had used the distraction to finish powering up her attack, charged at the unprepared lucario.

"Garchomp, dragon rush! Stop that attack!" Garchomp glowed with an energy of its own as the two charging pokemon met head on. They stayed in a deadlock for a moment but, to Gardenia's amazement, Garchomp was the one to get sent flying back. Gardenia knew the power of that garchomp; she couldn't believe any pokemon could best its dragon rush. Stella, though lacking intelligence and agility, was a nidoqueen with an extreme amount of stamina and power. Gardenia had heard this from Cynthia herself, but still could not believe it.

Admittedly, the nidoqueen seemed to have taken quite a bit of damage as garchomp got up from the ground. Charizard could not fly in the small room, and was more or less condemned to battling from its current spot. She launched another flamethrower at lucario, intending to finish it off, but Cynthia ordered Garchomp to take the hit. Little damage was done to the ground type pokemon, and Cynthia ordered a dragon claw attack. Garchomp charged forward, its claws lit up, and struck charizard in the stomach. The flame dragon roared in pain and loosed another flamethrower at garchomp, which once more proved uneffective.

Now Stella was once more ready to fight, and she charged towards Lucario for a body slam attack. Cynthia saw an opportunity.

"Lucario, jump on to nidoqueen's back when she gets close!" Stella, too intent on her attack to notice, was oblivious to Cynthia's order. Lucario jumped on the nidoqueen's back, and she immediately stopped and attempted to shake him off. Cynthia ordered a force palm, which lucario delivered right to the back of Stella's head, who went down for the count.

It was now that Evan gave a yelp of pain, causing Cynthia to turn around and loose her focus. She caught a glimpse of the little girl, running down the servant hall, with Evan getting up to give chase. Flame the charizard took the opportunity to use another flamethrower on lucario, knocking it out.

Jenna's face had had a calm look of malevolent contentment throughout the course of the battle. Now her face was contorted with rage.

"Get that girl!" the spirit inside Jenna ordered. Flame tried to run forward to fulfill the demand, but was stopped by a glancing blow from another dragon claw attack. Flame and Garchomp faced each other, Flame with grim resolution to save her master. They stared each other down for about twenty seconds before the spirit in control of Jenna lost his patience.

"Get rid of those people now!" Shouted Jenna. Flame, realizing that a flamethrower would do nothing, began flapping its wings to create a strong wind. Cynthia and Gardenia had to bend away from it in order to avoid being blown back. Garchomp was able to dig its fins into the floor beneath it, holding its ground. Flame stopped, and it was then that Evan came running back into the room.

"I- " He gasped for breath, then continued, "lost her!"

Jenna's face was livid. "You incompetent fool! How could you loose her?!?"

Evan's eyes narrowed as his breathing slowed. Focusing on Jenna, he said, "I do not need to respond to the likes of you. Release that girl from the hold you have on her."

Jenna's eyes narrowed as well, but the spirit inside seemed to be calming down. "No matter. I will find the girl myself." Jenna's hand once more dove into her bag and came out with one more pokeball. Out came a tyranitar, a full foot taller than the charizard next to it. It looked prepared for a battle, but like Flame upon coming out, realized something was wrong. It turned back to Jenna as she began to speak.

"Flame, Rasu, keep these nuisances from leaving this room. You know what will happen if you fail." She eyed Flame meaningfully at this. Rasu, the tyranitar, looked very confused. Charizard growled something out to him, and his eyes hardened. The two turned back to Cynthia and Garchomp, ready to do whatever it would take to save their trainer. Jenna's body ran back down the servant passage, in search of the butler's quarry.

Cynthia looked grim. Rasu was like Stella, not because of any special training or ability on his part, but just because of his species; tyranitars in general are formidable opponents. Cynthia, thinking quickly, sent out Milotic, who was strong against both opponents' types. She was about to order a hydro pump when Evan began talking.

"Tyranitar, Charizard, you don't have to fight us. The spirit in Jenna's body has too much use for her. That is, until he kills the little girl that just ran away. If we don't get that girl, then the spirit will kill the little girl, then your trainer. Do you want that? If you just let us knock you out, the spirit will be none the wiser. Then we could save your trainer. What do you say?"

They looked at each other, growling a bit to each other in discussion. Flame looked about ready to answer when suddenly the floor groaned, creaked, and gave a resounding crack where Flame had hit it with her flamethrower earlier. The whole center section of the floor broke under the combined weight of the four pokemon, causing Rasu, Flame, Garchomp, Milotic, and Cynthia to go crashing downwards. Milotic, knowing that her trainer would not survive the twenty foot fall to the dining room below, wrapped her tail around Cynthia and held her above the main part of her serpentine body. Flame tried to open her wings, but debris got in the way and she fell with the rest of them. The impact of the pokemon and remnants of the floor made a huge boom, with the vibrations being felt throughout the entire house.

Gardenia and Evan, who had escaped into the servant passage, looked down in worry and horror. They were not too terribly worried about the KO'ed pokemon - all were strong and could handle a fall, even if it was twenty feet down. Who they were worried about was Cynthia. They could see her, lying on top of a coil of Milotic's body. From their height, it was hard to tell how badly she was hurt - at the very least, one of her arms was sticking out at a wrong angle, and they assumed it to be broken. She could live with a broken arm; but what about her back? Or her neck? It was impossible for them to tell from their position.

Even Evan, who normally remained so calm, was speechless. Gardenia was the first to talk.

"W-we have to go down and h-help her." She was shaking all over, and it was a miracle she was able to say anything at all.

Evan got back his voice, though his face remained pale. "No." he said.

"What?! We have to help her!" Gardenia exclaimed.

"If she is injured seriously, there is nothing we con do about it. What we can do is save Jenna and the girl, Mia. We can help Cynthia as soon as we do that."

"But what about Jenna's last pokemon! I don't know what it is, but it's sure to be as strong as the last ones, meaning neither of us could defeat it! If we have to confront Jenna again, we will die here!"

Evan, who had just looked pale, now turned a sickly tint of green. "I didn't realize she had another pokemon. We'll need to go down to Cynthia then, and either wake her up or use her pokemon for the moment. I really don't think she'll be in any condition for battling."

"But-"

"No arguing. My decision is final on this. If Cynthia has to wait a bit for medical attention, she can wait. But we have to save Jenna and the girl, since that is in our power to do. We don't have time to argue. We have to hurry!"

* * *

OMG, I was totally and completely not expecting the floor to collapse. This may sound strange coming from the author, but I seriously didn't know that it would collapse until the paragraph before it happened. I was really surprised, to understate it. I wasn't expecting Cynthia to be put out of action like that, which makes the rest of the story all the more interesting. You have no idea how seriously surprised I was it happened. I'm still trying to take it in (well, that's exagerrating it now, but you get my point.).

Anyway, a couple of fun facts about the Jenna's pokemon:

1. A sandshrew was my first pokemon card, hence my abiding love for Sandy the sandslash.

2. Silver, Flame, and Stella are all pokemon I made for a RP, which is currently (at a slow place) taking place at 81. com. The name Flame is obvious. Silver because the word 'golduck' always makes me think of 'gold' which makes me think of 'silver'. Stella was originally going to be Luna, but someone had used the name Luna for an umbreon at Poketto, and I didn't want to copy. The next thing I though of (since luna is italian for 'moon') was Stella (which is Italian for 'star').

3. The name Rasu for Tyranitar comes from the part of the Japanese names for larvitar, tyranitar, and pupitar that stays the same (like 'tar' for this language's version of the names). I was thinking in vain for a name for him, and so I tried looking on Serebii .net for a pokedex description to give me an idea, and the name 'bangirasu' (tyranitar's full Japanese name) struck me as cool sounding.

4. Well... I'll tell you about my last pokemon when you meet her. I'll give you a hint: Flame isn't the only fire pokemon on my dream team.

I hope your enjoying the story as much as I am! It took me three hours or so to write this chapter. I don't like the first half of it or so - I just wasn't getting into it then. Anyway, I will once again implore you to comment! I want to become a better writer, and reviews will help me do just that!


	7. The Final Confrontation

Disclaimer: Some awesome Japanese guy owns pokemon (I'm fairly sure). I'm not Japanese. I'm not a guy. Though I am fairly awesome, if I do say so myself.

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**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 7: The Final Confrontation_

They were nearly running in their rush to get to Cynthia. Out of the room, through the hallway, and down the grand staircase Gardenia and Evan went, Gardenia in worry for Cynthia and Evan in a hurry to save the two possessed humans in the building, as well as the spirit of the little girl. They encountered no one on the way down, which was quite a relief to Gardenia, though only as a passing thought. Right now, her mind was focused only on Cynthia. The two had been good friends for a long time; though Cynthia seemed to constantly have things she needed to do, she would always make time if Gardenia wanted to talk. Of course, Cynthia was friendly with all the other gym leaders as well, but to Gardenia it seemed that the two of them had a special bond as compared to the others.

When they arrived in the dining room, they carefully picked there way across the debris that covered the right side of the room and made their way to Cynthia. Evan took a quick check of the fallen pokemon, to make sure that Jenna's pokemon wouldn't start attacking , but all of them were out cold. Gardenia made her way to Cynthia, and dragged her out of the debris. Evan winced.

"You shouldn't be moving her... if she is really injured, you could be making it worse."

Gardenia ignored him, staying focused on her task. As soon as she was clear of the rubble, she gently lowered Cynthia down onto her back. With a frantic eye, she glanced over Cynthia.

"I... I don't think any important bones are broken... Her right arm seems fractured in several places, and her left leg also looks broken. But other than that..." Gardenia let out a gasp. "She's got a scratch on her head! That in itself isn't that bad, but.... What if she has a concussion? We've got to get her medical attention!"

Evan bent down to examine Cynthia. He grabbed her wrist, feeling for a pulse.

"Her heartbeat is weak, but she'll live for a time. As I said, we don't have time for this! Now where does she keep her pokeballs?"

Gardenia was angry, but she hid it well. She knew that she wasn't going to win the argument. Reaching into one of the pockets in the long, stylish black coat that Cynthia always wore, Gardenia pulled out three pokeballs. Without saying a word to Evan, she let the pokemon out. One was a roserade, the pokemon whom the grass gym leader was most familiar with. Another was a gastrodon, of the variety that was pink rather than green. The last one was a ghost that Gardenia really knew nothing about, though she did remember Cynthia mentioning that it was something called a spiritomb.

Gardenia waited for a moment to see if Evan would say anything to the pokemon. This gave the pokemon time to see their trainer, and rush over to her side. Gardenia continued waiting to say anything for a moment longer, and then realized that Evan was leaving dealing with the pokemon up to her. He, of course, was not a battler and was also less acquainted with Cynthia's pokemon.

Gardenia, not knowing any better way to get the attention of the pokemon, gave a little cough. They turned, with murder in their eyes. Gardenia saw that they were blaming her, and quickly took a step back.

"No! I didn't do this! Roserade, you know me! I wouldn't do this to Cynthia!" The pokemon still looked angry, but they seemed to go with what Gardenia was saying. They stayed where they were, waiting for Gardenia to explain. Gardenia, understanding this, continued.

"Well, you see, Cynthia... uhh... well, it's a long story. But we have to get who did this to her! But I'm not strong enough to beat him - er, maybe I mean her... I don't know!" Gardenia was working herself into a fluster now, but she knew what she wanted to get across to the pokemon. "Will two of you come with me so we can defeat the one who did this, while the other remains here and watches over Cynthia?" Roserade stepped forward quietly. It was a sort of strong, silent type, much different than Gardenia's own roselia, who loved to be the center of attention. Gastrodon, too, crawled forward, giving a strange sort of gurgling cry. Spiritomb, whether it had wanted to be or not, was the one left with the job of guarding the unconscious champion.

Gardenia gave a small smile, but it was weak and lacked any sort of conviction. "Thanks. You'll have to listen to me if we do any battling, okay?" Both nodded their heads before returning to their pokeballs, which Gardenia still held in her hands.

The gym leader turned to Evan. Her fear was not gone - in fact, due to how much this butler ghost had done, she was more afraid than ever - but she knew that they had to keep on moving if she wanted to save Cynthia, and that was enough to give her courage, at least for the moment.

"So what do we need to do now? How are we supposed to get those ghosts out of Mia and Jenna?"

Evan seemed to ponder something before replying. "Do you remember what that little girl said? She said she wouldn't pass on without her dad. If we can get the father's spirit to pass on, then hopefully her spirit will leave as well. And while I think the butler's spirit would continue existing in this world if he was the one who managed to get rid of the girl, I think his spirit will disappear if we manage to get the girl to pass on, since he will be unable to complete his original purpose. So we have to find the father's spirit. It has to be here somewhere..."

"What about the creepy statue?" suggested Gardenia, just barely suppressing a shiver.

Evan seemed to brighten somewhat. "There's an idea. Come on, we'll need to check it out." Since they were already in the dining room, it took less than a minute to make their way to the statue. Gardenia stood a little ways away from it, equally tense due to its proximity and the chances of Jenna and her last pokemon coming along. Evan closed his eyes and ran his hands over the statue, ignoring the glare that seemed to come from the strange stone creature's eyes. After about a minute, he opened his eyes and turned back toward Gardenia.

"I... I don't believe this is the father's ghost. It feels... feminine to me, but I can't be certain. I'd like to look in to it more, just in case, but I don't think we have time. Our best bet is to keep on looking and hope that we find a spirit that is without a doubt the girl's deceased father. If we take time here and this turns out not to be the right ghost, the chances of us having the time to find the right ghost dwindle to almost nothing." Gardenia nodded. She had no idea whatsoever how he could tell if a spirit was a guy or a girl, and could therefore had no call on what they should or shouldn't do. Evan walked quickly towards the left set of stairs with Gardenia following close behind. About halfway up the grand staircase, the stairs began to shudder, making loud cracking sounds. Gardenia rushed over to the edge and grabbed the railing, trying to keep a hold of something solid should the center of the stairs collapse.

"Tu." Natu said blankly.

"Shoot! I've already said we don't have time for this!" Evan seemed unconcerned by the tremblings of the stairs beneath him as he began to dig into his pack. "Gardenia, call out that Roserade. We need it with us." Only now he seemed to catch sight of Gardenia, who was holding onto the railing as if her life depended on it, as she thought it did.

"You can let go of that. It's all an illusion, made by some more gastly. Just get out that Roserade so I can give it this." He said harshly, pulling out another cleanse tag that was looped onto a string. Gardenia, unconvinced, kept a tight hold of the railing with one hand as she reached into a pocket and pulled out Roserade's pokeball. When the grass pokemon came out, it quickly went to a battle ready position, as if to combat whatever thing was shaking the stairs. Evan approached, and Gardenia managed to tell the Roserade to let him put the cleanse tag on. As soon as it was dangling from Roserade's neck, the stairs appeared to stop shaking and all went back to as it was before. Gardenia released the railing, thankful that the whole set of stairs had not collapsed. Whatever Evan said, the illusion had seemed real enough to her.

Evan glared at her, seemingly still angry about the delay. "We don't have time to wait around here. Come on." Without another word, he turned and took the steps two at a time, expecting Gardenia and the Roserade to follow. The two glanced at each other before hurrying up behind him, trying to catch up. By the time they had gone through the door at the center of overhanging balcony, Evan was already heading into a room to the right, in between the one at the very end where the floor had collapsed and the room in the center they had been in when Mia had ran past.

"Natu!" The moment Evan was in, the natu let out its alert.

"This is it!" whispered Evan said as Gardenia and Roserade entered the room behind him. He walked forward, more slowly than before, straight towards a portait hanging on the opposite wall of the room. Though faded with age, the subject was easy enough to distinguish. The painting depicted a skinny, middle aged man wearing an old fashioned suit and tie. In one hand he held an ornate cane. His expression was serious, but not unkind. Gardenia hung back at the doorway, knowing that she wanted to avoid any contact with the ghost. As Evan placed his hand upon the painting and closed his eyes, Gardenia looked around nervously. She didn't want to be taken by surprise if Jenna still had one pokemon left.

As she was glancing about, she noticed two shimmering areas in the air, not unlike how the air above a fire seems to waver with the heat. One was to the left side of the room, the other to the right. Her palms sweated as her mind immediately jumped to the only conclusion that made sense to her now fear-driven mind: ghosts.

"Umm... Evan..." Evan remained unmoved, apparently meditating deeply on the painting before him. One hand still remained on the canvas, and his eyes were still loosely shut. Gardenia knew it was important not to disturb him, and so shut her mouth, willing the wavering patches to disappear. That is, until she saw the glowing red eyes that occupied the top half of the shimmers.

"Evan!" She said, this time with more urgency. "There are ghosts in here!" She was already halfway out the door, her body partially hidden by the doorframe. Roserade stood in a battle stance, ready to help Gardenia if something were to attack. Evan jerked out of his trance and whipped around, ready to confront whatever foe there may be. However, instead of getting rid of the ghosts as Gardenia expected, he scowled.

"Those are just some gengar. They're able to get closer because their higher level than the gastly from before. But they can't do anything as long as we've got the cleanse tag on Roserade. Now please, I need to concentrate." Gardenia stayed silent, satisfied with his answer, if not exactly comfortable with having two ghosts in the room - even if they were pokemon. She remained where she was, with her head just barely peeking into the room. She didn't want to be any closer to ghosts than she had to. Roserade, for her part, fired off some sleep powder at the two gengar. neither were hit, but both seemed to leave. For the moment, at least.

It was just then that Gardenia heard a strange sound down the hallway to her left, as well as the cry of a pokemon. She turned her head, barely having time to comprehend the sight in front of her before a blast of fire jetted towards her. She managed to get inside the room before it hit, but felt the fiery air woosh past the doorway immediately behind her. Though he had been concentrating, Evan snapped out of his meditation and turned around to see Gardenia, eyes wide with fear of what nearly happened to her.

"I-I-It's Jenna! She's using a n-ninetails!" gasped Gardenia. She heard the tap of Jenna's feet as she walked quickly down the hall towards the room they were in. Gardenia backed up from the door and stumbled over to where Evan was standing, while Roserade prepared itself for a battle.

Evan turned to Gardenia, whispering urgently. "Listen! I need you to hold her off. I'll send this spir-" He broke off suddenly as the fox pokemon walked into the room and sat calmly a bit in front of the doorway. Evan silently let out a pair of chimecho from their pokeballs, then turned back to the painting, closed his eyes, and began to mumble a chant of some sort. The chimecho stationed themselves on either side of him, and began to give off bell-like peals in unison. Gardenia, preparing for the worst, sent out Cynthia's gastrodon. It would be a better match against a ninetails than a roserade.

It was to this scene - Evan with his back turned, two chimecho chiming eerily, and Gardenia with Roserade and Gastrodon - that Jenna walked into. She stood right behind the ninetails, looking questioningly at Evan.

Jenna smiled a bit, as if amused at the people and pokemon before her. "What are you doing? Trying to delay the -" Jenna's face contorted with rage as the ghost inside her realized what was happening. "Stop! That fool scientist deserves to rot inside that painting. Stop your chanting!" Evan squeezed his eyes tighter, but other than that, showed no sign of having heard.

Jenna's face grew even more wrathful at being ignored. "Amber! Use flamethrower on that man!"

"Gastrodon, use water gun to stop the flamethrower!" Gardenia shouted. The two attacks colided in midair, causing the air to fill with steam. Gardenia could barely see through the thick vapor, and the only thing she could identify clearly was the sound of the constant chiming from behind her.

Jenna's voice now rang out from the other side of the room. "Amber, use fire blast where you were aiming before!"

"Gastrodon! Block it again!" More steam filled the room, though Gardenia could tell that the attacks hadn't toally cancelled each other out. She heard a cry from the ninetails on the other side of the room and realized it must have been hit. Then she felt searing pain on her right arm as flames burned through the cloth of her sleeve. The ninetails had sent out a flamethrower in quickly after the fire blast, but had misaimed because of the water attack that had hit it. Her eyes watered witht he pain, and she bit her lip to keep herself from crying out.

Trying to ignore the pain of the burnt skin, Gardenia shouted blindly into the steam. "Ninetails! Do you really want to do this? We can help your trainer, but you have to stop attacking us!" Gardenia was rewarded with a mis-aimed fire blast, this time burning the bare skin of her right leg. She cried out as she collapsed, shocked by the attack and unable to keep weight on her leg. But she knew she couldn't just sit there for long. The steam was beginning to clear, and now she could see a few feet in front of her.

Jenna's laugh - a cruel, harsh sound, due to the ghost controlling it - rang out through the room. "Amber is smarter than all of this girl's other pokemon! She knows exactly what she wants: power. She doesn't care if her trainer is possessed or not, as long as she can become more powerful."

Gardenia took this short rant as an opportunity to attack. "Hydro Pump, Gastrodon!" With the steam clearing, Gastrodon had a much better idea of where to aim. The jet of water shot from it's mouth, towards where Jenna had been talking. There was still enough steam that Gardenia couldn't tell what happened to the ninetails, but she did hear a shout from Jenna as she was propelled backwards, into the hallway. Finally, the steam cleared. Amber was standing off to one side of the room, having apparently dodged the attack. Jenna was struggling to her feet in the hallway, having been slammed up against the far wall. She staggered into the room and glared at the ninetails.

"Why are you just standing there? Use psychic!" Jenna ordered. The fox's eyes glowed red as the gastrodon was raised into the air, unable to do anything about it.

_Since when can fire pokemon use psychic?_ Gardenia thought. She was just about to order Roserade forward to attack when several things happened at once. Gastrodon was dropped fromt he air. It landed heavily, but neither it nor the floor seemed too damaged. Next to her, Gardenia heard the chiming stop and saw Evan turn his back to the wall and slide to a sitting position on the wall, breathing heavily. Amber turned gracefully towards Jenna, staring at her intently.

"What are you doing? Attack them!" Jenna shouted. "Use flame-" Jenna stopped midword, and her face suddenly became disfigured with anger and pain. But only for a moment. Then her face became expressionless as her eyes fluttered closed and she passed out, her ninetails coming forward to break the fall. Amber gently lowered her trainer to the ground, then sat calmly by her side.

Gardenia looked around, first at Evan, then at the ninetails and Jenna, and then back to Evan. Obviously, something had happened.

"What's going on? What did you do?" She asked Evan.

Evan let his breathing slow a bit more before replying.

"It's over. It's finally over."

* * *

Well, I'll have an epilogue after this, and maybe a straight-forward explanation of my theory on the events of The Old Chateau in the game, but other than that, this is finished. I'd like to thank Murkrowfeather and GirlWaterShaman for being the only two people who have reviewed this so far. I'm glad to know that you like it! Also, though he won't see it, thanks to waveguidesquirtle, who I think is the only one reading this at the forum I wrote it for and was inspired by, poketto[dot]proboards104[dot]com.

Also, brief summary on Amber - she is the main villain in the RP I have going at the poketto forum, which is entitled "the Price of Power." (waveguidesquirtle is the only other one who posts in that, other than myself) Her name just comes from the word ember, which is a fire pokemon attack as well as a word that just makes me think of fire. I love ninetails with a passion. They're so beautiful... and mine are usually delectably evil, as well. If you can tell by the ending, Amber (for this fanfic, perhaps not for the RP) is not totally uncaring, but she wasn't an idiot - she had enough psychic ability to know that her trainer was possessed, and that it wouldn't do her trainer any good if she didn't obey. Though she is power hungry, she retains some loyalty to Jenna for making her as powerful as she currently is.

Anyway, thanks again for reading, please stick around for the epilogue!


	8. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I still don't own pokemon. Too lazy to write any more than that.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who have commented (a whopping three people now!). Thanks again to Murkrowfeather and GirlWaterShaman, as well as my newest reviewer, EeveeCelebi749. I'm glad you all like it! Please let me know if anyone still has any more questions on my explanation of the story of the Old Chateau, as I have a clear explanation of it, but I'm too lazy to post it unless someone requests it. Thanks to everyone who's read and will read my story, and I really hope you enjoyed it!

* * *

**Spirits of the Past**

_Part 8: Epilogue_

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

Exactly one week had passed since that nightmarish day at the Old Chateau. Gardenia was now making her rounds at the hospital. Gardenia herself had had to stay for a couple nights, due to the second and third degree burns she had sustained from Jenna's ninetails. They had allowed her leave soon enough, though, with the promise that she would keep fresh bandages on the injured places. She was now using crutches to get around, since putting too much weight on her leg caused too much pain to practically get around.

Cynthia, whom Gardenia had been addressing, smiled. "I'm doing a lot better today. It's not hurting quite as much. The worst part is just not being able to get around." Cynthia laughed a bit at this, and Gardenia joined in. One of Cynthia's arms, as well as one of her legs had been broken. She had needed surgery to get a metal plate put into each to hold the mending bones in place, but other than that, Cynthia had been unharmed. No concussion, as Gardenia had so feared. After they finished their giggling, Cynthia continued, "So how are my pokemon doing?"

"They're all doing fine. They're just anxious to see you again." Gardenia had agreed to taking care of Cynthia's pokemon while the champion remained in the hospital. After talking casually for a bit more, Gardenia wished Cynthia well, then crutched her way to a room on the next floor up. This was where the children who were healing were placed.

"Helloooo? Is Mia in here?" asked Gardenia as she poked her head in the doorway. A little girl ran up, followed by another, slightly older girl as well as a boy her own age.

"Gardenia! You're here! Look at the puzzle we just made!" Gardenia took an appreciative look at the simple jigsaw puzzle the kids had put together. Mia, though not physically hurt, was gaining back her strength after her long period of eating a drinking little. The ghost apparently hadn't done it's best at keeping its host alive - perhaps it had been so long since that spirit had lived, it no longer remembered how. Gardenia had tried to get the full story of what had happened to Mia out of her once she was beginning to get her strength back, but it was still slightly muddled. As far as Gardenia could tell, it sounded as if the girl had actually felt... drawn to the haunted mansion. Whatever the case, she couldn't remember anything from the time when she entered the chateau to the time when she had woken up in the hospital. Gardenia and Evan, combined witht he efforts of their pokemon, had managed to find the girl passed out in the hallway sometime after that final battle with Jenna. Gardenia was still a bti confused with what had happened with that whole thing as well. As Evan had explained, he had managed to send the ghost of the father on, away from this world. With her father gone, the spirit of the little girl had also been able to 'pass on.' And without any object of his revenge left, the evil butler had apparently dissapated.

After entertaining the children for a little longer, Gardenia took her leave. There was still something that needed to be done.

***

About an hour later, Jenna, Evan, and Gardenia all arrived at the Old Chateau. It was a place that Gardenia had hoped never to go to again, but Evan had said that it would be... healing for her to come to it one last time, to finish one last bit of business there. Jenna didn't really need healing, but she had wanted to come along anyway. She remembered nothing from the time she was possessed, and had had to listen to the whole story from Evan. She couldn't quite believe it, but then she wouuld remember her brief struggle with the dark presence in her mind before being possessed, and she believed it well enough. She had the scars from the cuts to verify her possessor's threats. But she handled the fact hat she had been possessed well; she apologized for what she had done, and more or less went on with her life. Right now, she was staying at the Pokemon Center until Cynthia healed. A couple times, she had a nightmare where the dark presence came again, but each time she simply dismissed it as her imagination. Evan said that the evil ghost had dissappeared. There was no way he could harm Jenna again.

They walked into the house, and instead of going to any of the rooms, walked straight over to the glaring statue. Evan led the way, followed by Jenna who was being followed closely by Gardenia. They had already let out Jenna's sandslash and outfitted her with a cleanse tag, so they had no problems with ghosts. Once they made their way to the statue, Evan put his hands to it and stood there for a good five to ten minutes. Jenna and Gardenia remained silent as they waited, not wanting to disturb him. Eventually, he backed away from the statue, rubbing his temples as if to dispel a headache.

"Jenna," Evan said after some time, "Would you have your sandslash move the statue and dig underneath it?" Jenna nodded to Sandy, signaling to her to do so. The statue was heavy, but Sandy was able to move it aside with some effort. She then went to digging a hole where it had been, breaking through what was left of the tiled floor of that area. After digging only a foot deep, her claws rasped against something solid. Something metallic. After clearing away the rest of the dirt on top of it, she managed to reveal a large set of metal double doors, leading down farther into the ground. Together, Jenna and Evan opened them to reveal a pile of nevermeltice.

"What... is this?" Jenna asked, surprised at the cold chamber they had uncovered.

Evan's eyebrows came together in a thoughtful scowl. "It's just like the memories said... Here, let me take care of the ice, and you'll see why we're here." Evan let out his alakazam, who used psychic to lift out the ice. When they saw what was beneath, Jenna gasped and Gardenia had to turn away.

Within an open coffin at the bottom of the vertical chamber was the decomposing body of a woman. She must have been pretty at some point, but now her face looked much hollower - almost mummified. However, her body was actually very well preserved.

"This is the mother of the girl spirit, and wife to the scientist." Evan said. "Her spirit was bound to here since her body was never properly buried. Her husband had been hoping on preserving her body so that he could try to revive her one day, but obviously died before that happened. If such a thing could ever happen." Evan seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, but then continued. "Well, let's give this woman a proper burial. It doesn't have to be fancy, and I'd rather not tell anyone about this. We can bury her outside the mansion." Using the combined psychic attacks of the Jenna's golduck and Evan's alakazam, they managed to lift the coffin and its contents out of the mansion and over to the left side of the mansion. Sandy dug a hole large enough for a proper burial, then filled it back up once the coffin was closed and inside the hole. Evan said a few words for the spirit, and announced that he could no longer feel the ghost's presence.

And so, with that last action, the infamous Old Chateau was rid of it's last human inhabitant. Ghosts still continue to wreak havoc in the old place, but no longer do the memories of the past taint the decaying building. However, if you're lucky, there are still those that say that if you go up to a certain room, on a dark, dark night, you just might see a certain pokemon. The last ghost, you could say, of the sad story of this haunted mansion. It's a mischievious little rascal: an electrified blob of plasma that just loves to wreak havoc with electrical devices. Some say it was the last successful experiment of the late scientist, and perhaps the greatest completed experiment in the history of the world. They say that it was the only case in which life has been artificially created, though it came with the cost of the lives of those in the mansion.

But, of course, it _is _just a legend.


End file.
